Scan 20
Violin master works and their interpretation, 1925
8 lines. Read by computer on 3 September 2026. No printed page number was found. See the scan on archive.org.
1After a repetition of the Grave and the Allegro assai, this time on the tonic, we have the Cadenza, which is founded on the Initial Theme of the Sonata, the Larghetto, and should be played in that tempo. Then, after a chain of trills, very broadly played, we have an allusion to the preceding Allegro, and the composition ends with a long, preparatory ritenuto and a tremendous working-up of tone that carries us to the final Adagio.
3It stands to reason that Tartini must have composed a large number of sonatas (as a matter of fact his published compositions alone include some forty sonatas and eighteen concertos) when we consider that both his two best-known and most deservedly popular works—the "Devil's Trill" Sonata and the Sonata in G minor—are written in the same key. The Sonata in G minor* goes beyond Corelli and Vivaldi as regards development of form and musical content. Tartini is said to have been in the habit of reading one of Petrarch's sonnets before beginning to compose, and in view of the poetic beauty of the Sonata in G minor one is inclined to think he hit upon an especially fine sonnet by the Italian poet before he wrote this work.
5The First Movement, Adagio, in 8/8 time, demands a warm, lovely quality of tone in order adequately to convey the sorrowful character of its music, whose plaintiveness is notably emphasized in the second measure from the beginning by the use of the augmented second E flat and F sharp. This mood dominates the entire sonata, although now and again a modulation leading into B flat establishes a mood more quiet and consolatory. I must here repeat that quite aside from the beauty inherent in this music itself, it calls for the needful variations of tonal color in order to express the details of that
7* In Tartini's own day this sonata was called Didone abbandonata ("Dido the Forsaken"). My observations refer to the edition I have published, revised and edited for the firm of Carl Fischer, Inc., New York.
The computer misreads some letters and numbers. Where a name matters to you, read the scan.